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Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

(www.theguardian.com)
510 points bookofjoe | 4 comments | 07 Dec 25 14:37 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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regera ◴[07 Dec 25 21:07 UTC] No.46185157[source]▶
Dollar stores are private equity with a checkout lane.

In 2025, Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar to a group of private-equity firms: Brigade Capital Management, Macellum Capital Management and Arkhouse Management Co.

https://corporate.dollartree.com/news-media/press-releases/d...

It’s a business model cosplaying as poverty relief while quietly siphoning money from the people least able to lose it. They already run on a thin-staff, high-volume model. That 23% increase is not a glitch. They know their customers can’t drive across town to complain. They know the regulators won’t scale fines to revenue.

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sema4hacker ◴[07 Dec 25 21:15 UTC] No.46185228[source]▶
Has private equity ever done anything good for anyone outside of the investors?
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chongli ◴[07 Dec 25 21:51 UTC] No.46185536[source]▶
Private equity are the crows of the economy. They pick off weak / dysfunctional businesses and open space for fresh competition (or for other markets to open up).
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1. hellotheretoday ◴[07 Dec 25 21:55 UTC] No.46185585[source]▶
this would be somewhat arguable as okay except for their introduction into categories like daycare, emergency rooms, drug and alcohol rehab, care homes for the geriatric and disabled, etc. things that probably shouldn’t be profit oriented to begin with yet are and are being snatched up by private equity, worsening outcomes in basically all of them
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2. luckylion ◴[07 Dec 25 22:32 UTC] No.46185974[source]▶
"shouldn't be profit oriented" is another way to say "costs will quickly grow exponentially", because there's absolutely no incentive not to let them.

Is anyone better off if elderly care becomes too expensive to offer at scale?

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3. collingreen ◴[07 Dec 25 22:58 UTC] No.46186216[source]▶
1: "Shouldn't be profit oriented"

2: ???

3: "too expensive to offer at scale"

4. TylerE ◴[07 Dec 25 23:30 UTC] No.46186496[source]▶
Except that Americans pay far more for these services than places where they aren't profit oriented. Try again. Reality does not support your assertion.